Pierre Bonnard – Painting Silent Intimacy

Between Law and a Vocation for Painting

Pierre Bonnard was born in 1867 in Fontenay-aux-Roses. He began law studies and obtained his degree in 1888.
However, his true passion was painting: he enrolled at the Académie Julian while still studying law, then entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Though he was officially sworn in as a lawyer, he devoted himself fully to art in the early 1890s.
He shared a studio on Rue Pigalle with Maurice Denis and Édouard Vuillard, joined the group of the Nabis, and, for his embrace of Japanese aesthetics, was nicknamed the “very japonard Nabi.”

Marthe, a Lifelong Muse

In 1893, Bonnard exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, and that same year, he met Marthe, who would become his life companion and the exclusive model for his nudes until her death.
Her presence became the quiet, constant thread woven through his entire body of work.

Bonnard also worked on numerous illustration and poster projects, and participated in group exhibitions, including at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in 1897.
He remained close to Vuillard, and was also part of the circle that included Thadée and Misia Natanson, architect Albert Laprade, composer Maurice Ravel, and maintained a long correspondence with Maurice Denis.

The South: Light and Solitude

In the summer of 1909, Bonnard visited Saint-Tropez, invited by Henri Manguin. He returned in 1911 with Paul Signac, and painted a major triptych titled Méditerranée.
He began spending extended periods on the French Riviera — in Cannes, Antibes, and later, in Le Cannet, where he bought a villa in 1926, one year after marrying Marthe.

From then on, the couple divided their time between their Paris home (Boulevard des Batignolles) and their southern retreat, a place that would become essential to Bonnard’s late work.

International Recognition and Final Years

In 1928, Bonnard held a major solo exhibition in New York, followed a few years later by a presentation of around forty works at the Wildenstein Gallery.
In 1936, alongside Vuillard and Roussel, he was commissioned to design the foyer decor of the Palais de Chaillot Theater.

In 1942, Marthe passed away, during the height of World War II.
Deeply affected, Bonnard experienced moments of solitude and creative doubt, as reflected in his notebooks.
Yet he continued painting until the end of his life.

He died in Le Cannet in January 1947. A museum dedicated to his work opened there in 2011.
In 2015, the Musée d’Orsay held a major retrospective exhibition titled Pierre Bonnard: Painting Arcadia, which was met with great public acclaim.